Build Blockers. What Is The Problem?

In threads i've seen a lot of people complaining about others leaving their skillbars blacked out or not showing. Now is it me or are people not entitled to keeping their builds secret. I mean I just don't get the logic behind some poeple. I mean not everyone wants their build that may be brilliant becoming the next cookie cutter build. Take me for example I have a nice little book filled with my own builds. Yet I refuse to share them. Now why do I not share my builds, because my builds are made to suit my own playing style. As such they are made for my use no one elses. I mean how can people not understand such a simple concept as this?

Is there a point most builds have a basic standing and to show your skill setup won't hurt you will it since you prob. a wammo? pro. I don't see the point of wasting time just to hide a ss, wammo, nuker, earth ele, mm or any other build.

I guess your complaining aswell? If its so simple just ignore it? correct if your one for simplicity why even make a build and anyways you prob. get your builds from this site aswell with maybe for 5,000 and more people do.

I can see that my post looks like a complaint. However, it's more of a query. Not a well constructed one mind you. But generally i'm just curious into what it is that makes people think they have right to see in many cases demand other peoples builds?

Nothing really. I guess if people want to hide their builds then that's fine. It's not rocket science to come up with the build that will get you through certain areas. If you have an idea of what you'll be facing then you just go and find the counter-skills.

People that do "elite" things like solo'ing a hard area doing the new Factions "elite" content are blocking out their builds because they want to feel special for a while. If they handed out the build then any noob that got the build could go off and solo the area. In the case of "elite" missions in Factions it's probably to prevent the next controlling alliance from having an easy time of completing the mission.

One way or another it's not that big of a deal. The people that develop builds usually do so with an iterative process. They go out and figure out what works. Nobody solo'd the Underworld on his/her first time down there. Same goes for the "elite" missions in Factions. These teams went down there over and over and wiped each time, but each wipe they learned what skills they needed to move forward. So they reworked the bars and finally suceeded. Now they don't want to share the bar because that cuts out the thinking other people would have to do.

To me either is fine. If you feel the need to keep things a secret then by all means do so. If there's a need to feel superior for a while then that's fine to.

Lastly, most builds don't end up a secret for too long because you can just watch the skills that someone uses if you're fighting them or teamed with them. Then you just work out the attribute setup on your own and you're done. Again, not rocket science.

You are also forgetting that some people (like me) don't want to share our builds because other people will call our builds 'n00bish'.

I'm a casual player, so I'm not interested in wether my build is n00bish or not. I just want to enjoy the game. So if other people think it's a n00bish build, then they can just go screw themselves. They should stop trying to ruin other people's fun and putting other people down to make themselves feel superior.

If people want to keep there build secret its cool by me. I figure if ever I have a build worth keeping secret, then people will be able to observe my play in hoh or something and get it anyways. Also as you said, our builds usually suit our style of playing. So giving it out to people won't help them if they don't know how to play it right. I mean if you get an Oath shot trapper who doesn't understand when to use Oath Shot, then the build won't do him any good. Often I'll give out my build if people ask, I just don't tell them how to run it.

That is how the 55 build became widespread...thus getting nerfed to hell.

In reality, nobody likes a braggart. Posting a screenshot and saying "I can solo XXX all by myself, but I'm not going to tell you how!" just makes someone look like a bragging asshole. Pardon my bluntness, but that's simply how people will perceive you if you do such a thing.

When someone feels this terrible itch to tell the world that they can do something nobody else has done yet, is that not bragging? When you help people and tell them how they can be successful like you, you make friends and people WILL remember who did it first. You'll never lose face for helping people. When you brag but then leave people hanging, they don't much care for that.

For a real life analogy, say you won a Corvette in a sweepstakes. Now you go and tell all your friends that you won, you even drive it up to their houses so they can see it, but every time one of them asks to ride in it you refuse. Well, before long they will get sick you and the cherry-red horse you rode in on. Everyone is free to do what they want, but nobody likes a showoff.

Also, if it gets spread around, drop rates will be nerfed or mobs will be changed. I got a great solo spot that nobody knows about (no one of my class is even in any of the districts, especially now that factions is out). I'm not going to spread it around and have it become completely worthless. If one or two people do something, a.net lets it go. If hundreds do it (Augury rock for example), it becomes a problem.

i'll echo what others have said here; if you just watch what skills someone uses, you can work out the attribute lines yourself. reverse engineering a successful build isn't as hard as coming up with one in the first place. you're not really keeping anything secret with your little book of builds, unless you party exclusively with henchmen...

eudas

Considering this is a forum, where the intention is for people to gather and communicate, I think it is the expectation of most people that everyone should share. Otherwise you are behaving exactly as kvndoom has described.

There are a few reasons:
First of all, if you are in a PvE group the other group members do have a right to ask what you are running. If you refuse to say your skillbar you are hurting your team. Even elite PvP players don't keep their build secret from their allies. If you are running shelter, I need to know to run something else.

At the same time groups have the right to organize to a certain level of play. If you want to just play whatever plenty of groups will just pick up whatever random player they find. However, if you join my group as a monk/ele with firestorm I am going to ask you to change if I need a healer. In addition if you listen to the better player you might be pleasantly suprised. I remember teaching one warrior about sever, gash, final instead of Power attack and Gryphon's sweep. He was quite happy with the results.

The second reason is that the blacking out of skills has gotten quite ridiculous. A lot of PvE players tend to blackout everything, even when it is somewhat clear nothing of value is there. Players blacking out their warrior build running chain lightning and lightning strike is just plain silly.

Finally, a lot of the PvPers with the truely good builds are quite open with them. The boon prot is no big secret, they give tips on how to play the E.denial mesmers, once they are finished developing characters and builds you often see them proliferated quite rapidly. Thus blacking out your build makes you just look bad in comparison.

Stop it.

I understand hiding PvP builds, people don't want others to create counters and such, but please, somebody explain the logic behind hiding a PvE build..

The tengu might see it and switch from ignite arrows to apply poison?

PvE players just tend to be extremely defensive about their builds, far more so than a lot of PvP guilds. Part of it can be that the good GvG guilds realize it is pretty easy to just copy their build using observer mode and the information tends to proliferate regardless.

A lot of PvE players seem to thing they are a lot better than they really are also. They'll throw mending on their bar and think they are a buildmaking genious.

Because people make comments that have nothing to do with the thread at hand. I've never posted a screenshot with a blacked out skill bar, but if the skill bar wasn't important, why leave it in? Too many people like to make stupid comments "You have mending?! [Your thread stinks.]" with nothing actually added to the thread. Not enough "Live Vicariously is probably better than mending in that case because you have cyclone axe." So why bother showing the skill bar and bringing more excuses for off-topic into it.

Most PvEers want to have fun, not get told they're stupid (or lose), thats why they PvE and don't PvP. Many also like to brag and think they're all that, but some just don't want to deal with off-topic or wasteful comments. So now those people who want to make the wasteful comments (shooting down a braggart is still wasteful; Don't feed the trolls, even if it is fun) instead comment about the blacked-out skill bar.... sounds like a vicious cycle.

Edit: Any other reasons..... see kvndoom, his response was more than sufficient.

Think of the positive side of sharing your build. Maybe someone sees it who has also come up with the same thing or something very similar. Then you can share notes and give each other tips on ways to run it. Communicate, learn, etc.

Oh well, don't expect to be something very unique under most of the "build blockers". I'd say all builds that are effective are out in the open, and the stuff that's hidden isn't all that special.

Personally, I don't hide my build. I don't care about people that tell it sucks, and I might just help someone with it.

Build blockers ftl!

It's because people don't want to get laughed at, like that one time a guy brought axe rake without being able to apply deep wound...

Ditto.

I just don't know how many threads I've seen where some one says, "Hey, look what I did." and someone goes off topic and rags on the Build that they were using which was completely off topic.

ITs the person's choice whether or not to show their build and no one else should feel privileged to see it. Whether you like it or not.